10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

So, I anxiously followed the “Flock to Marion 2022” Facebook group in anticipation for open cabins to come up for sale. These have been used by meteorologists, technicians, and researchers who spend about 13 months on the island at a time researching a variety of sciences. I waited…and waited…and waited. and seabirders.

South Africa 264

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2023

Given that the Black Kite is politely described as an “opportunistic hunter” – which includes the fact that they are more likely to scavenge than most other raptors – the name choice of the company protecting the world’s cyber ecosystem is a bit weird. Fortunately, they are quite common in Shanghai.

Birds 130

Birds Iraq China Ireland 130

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2019

I started to learn how to tell waders (and gulls) apart only when I locally ran out of other hard bird groups to tackle. Quarter of a century later, I jumped at an opportunity to study environmental sciences, and guess what awaited me there? And it wasn’t so long ago. When there was hardly much else left, I accepted the shorebirds.

Serbia 161

Serbia New Jersey Europe Hunters 161

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

Nationwide, wildlife watchers now outspend hunters 6 to 1. Giving a few hundred hunters something else to shoot, in my opinion, cannot be worth the blowback from tens of thousands of people who are willing to travel and spend just to watch the birds fly over. Additionally, sandhill cranes reproduce very slowly.

2011 252

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 252

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

So, one might surmise, it’s OK if they get shot by hunters thinking they’re sandhill cranes? Another 170 are in captivity, many of them breeding stock for reintroduction efforts. What could motivate gunmen (I cannot call them hunters) in two states to deliberately kill North America’s tallest and most critically endangered bird?

2011 243

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 243

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2011

Since I was mapping-in human ‘territories’ or home ranges, and trying to figure out how tropical hunter-gatherers found their way around the landscape, the mechanisms of migration were interesting to me. (It Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1046 (1), 282-293 DOI: 10.1196/annals.1343.026 Consider the implications.

Research 197

Research Humane Compassion New York 197

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

The land was of course already occupied by San (Bushmen) hunter-gatherers for millennia and more recently Bantu tribes of the Nguni branch (most notably Zulus and Xhosas). Woodward’s Barbet belongs to a group of barbets known as Green Barbets. Image by Adam Riley. It was discovered in KwaZulu-Natal province by Dr Andrew Smith.

Mozambique 192

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 192